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B.C. welcomes high rollers: A peek into the world of superyacht tourism

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Craig Norris walks along the docks at Victoria International Marina on a sunny Friday afternoon, fielding phone calls and making sure everything is flowing well. 

On any given day, the marina welcomes many yachts that choose to stop in B.C.’s capital. Most recently, a US$35-million sailing yacht by the name of Athos docked. On July 14, crew members could be seen getting the 62-metre long vessel ready for its next sailing. 

Athos isn’t the only superyacht to enter B.C. waters; not far away off Cattle Point is a $100-million superyacht called Anawa. The Anawa is owned by a Brazilian billionaire and has been near Victoria since May 2023. 

Over on the mainland, a $200-million vessel called Attessa V (AV) has been drawing attention in North Vancouver . Then there's a 32-metre vessel called the  Snowbored . Its final destination is Galiano Island. 

In a statement to Glacier Media, the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority said anyone wishing to view the Attessa V in Vancouver's inner harbour area by boat "is urged to ensure they do so from a safe distance." "We love seeing boaters and paddlers out enjoying the waters that make up the Port of Vancouver," says Jason Krott, manager of marine operations and fleet. "Our focus is working with all users to build the awareness and understanding needed to support a safe shared space for recreational and commercial traffic."

The Snowbored, built by Westport in 2003, has a satin cherry wood interior, and a sundeck sporting a hot tub, wet bar, and lounge pads. It also has a fighting chair and rocket launcher for sport fishing, and can launch a Novurania tender and Yamaha waverunners.

For Norris, the CEO of Victoria International Marina, B.C. is starting to put itself on the map when it comes to attracting superyachts. For a long time, many international travellers would bypass the province altogether and head for Alaska, he says.

“Those yachts down in San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle and Tacoma that used to come up and just bypass us because they didn't know there was anything to do and now they're turning in and stopping and spending some time,” says Norris.

Superyacht owners are spending locally 

As part of his job, Norris spends time arranging for superyacht owners to visit Victoria businesses. That includes connecting them with local jewellers. 

“When they are visiting here, they're looking to spend money on art, and in the community, on all kinds of things: food and real estate and buying from retailers,” explains Norris. “They're just like any one of us: they go into a store, they like something, they buy it. It's just that they might buy a lot more.”

Sometimes superyacht owners will fly their friends in, and will put them up in nearby hotels, he adds. Crew members will often stay in hotels, too.

"They're all spending [money] locally.”

Unfriendly Canadians? 

However, Canadians’ friendly demeanour and politeness appear to not have transferred to the superyacht community, Norris tells Glacier Media.

During his time marketing B.C. internationally, he says that specific boating community has been ‘grumpy’ towards him after learning he’s from Victoria. 

"They basically said B.C. and Victoria, in particular, is one of the most unfriendly boating places in the world that they've seen,” said Norris. "I would say barring pirates."

He questions if the animosity is because the public does not get to interact or be ‘welcomed into the community’ of superyachting. 

“They don't get a chance to meet these people and see them so they don't know who they are,” he says. "It’s this mystery."

The public can come down to the dock and walk around to see the boats, something Norris welcomes. 

‘Exciting way to see the world’

According to Norris, the superyacht industry creates job opportunities for young people.

He tells Glacier Media that the marina has a high staff turnover as employees end up working on the bigger yachts.

“We're open to it. We don't think that that's a bad thing if they come on, and that's their career,” he says. “If they're hard-working, the yachts pick them up. There’s not a lot of them being trained in the region purposefully for that."

Norris adds yachting is an exciting way to see the world.

“You come down, you work here for a little bit and you have a really good chance of getting on one of those boats and just seeing stuff you would never see.”

The marina, he says, is actively hiring and looking for people interested in the marine industry. 

Superyacht repairs being done in B.C. shipyards 

Superyachts need an incredible amount of work to keep them running, and much of that work is being done locally when they arrive, says the CEO. 

"There are well over 100 industries that it touches: everything from fuel, to ship repair to almost anything you would have in a house you would have in a yacht,” says Norris. 

He believes more yachts will start coming to Victoria and having their work done in the shipyard.

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B.C. welcomes high rollers: A peek into the world of superyacht tourism

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Greg Norris walks along the docks at Victoria International Marina on a sunny Friday afternoon, fielding phone calls and making sure everything is flowing well. 

On any given day, the marina welcomes many yachts that choose to stop in B.C.’s capital. Most recently, a US$35-million sailing yacht by the name of Athos docked. On July 14, crew members could be seen getting the 62-metre long vessel ready for its next sailing. 

Athos isn’t the only superyacht to enter B.C. waters; not far away off Cattle Point is a $100-million superyacht called Anawa. The Anawa is owned by a Brazilian billionaire and has been near Victoria since May 2023. 

Over on the mainland, a $200-million vessel called Attessa V (AV) has been  drawing attention in North Vancouver . Dennis Washington is listed as owning AV and his network of companies includes Washington Marine Group and Seaspan Shipyards in North Vancouver, where Kyle Washington, Dennis Washington’s son, is executive chairman.

For Norris, the CEO of Victoria International Marine, B.C. is starting to put itself on the map when it comes to attracting superyachts. For a long time, many international travellers would bypass the province altogether and head for Alaska, he says.

“Those yachts down in San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle and Tacoma that used to come up and just bypass us because they didn't know there was anything to do and now they're turning in and stopping and spending some time,” says Norris.

Superyacht owners are spending locally 

As part of his job, Norris spends time arranging for superyacht owners to visit Victoria businesses. That includes connecting them with local jewellers. 

“When they are visiting here, they're looking to spend money on art, and in the community, on all kinds of things: food and real estate and buying from retailers,” explains Norris. “They're just like any one of us: they go into a store, they like something, they buy it. It's just that they might buy a lot more.”

Sometimes superyacht owners will fly their friends in, and will put them up in nearby hotels, he adds. Crew members will often stay in hotels, too.

"They're all spending [money] locally.”

Unfriendly Canadians? 

However, Canadians’ friendly demeanour and politeness appear to not have transferred to the superyacht community, Norris tells Glacier Media.

During his time marketing B.C. internationally, he says that specific boating community has been ‘grumpy’ towards him after learning he’s from Victoria. 

"They basically said B.C. and Victoria, in particular, is one of the most unfriendly boating places in the world that they've seen,” said Norris. "I would say barring pirates."

He questions if the animosity is because the public does not get to interact or be ‘welcomed into the community’ of superyachting. 

“They don't get a chance to meet these people and see them so they don't know who they are,” he says. "It’s this mystery."

The public can come down to the dock and walk around to see the boats, something Norris welcomes. 

‘Exciting way to see the world’

According to Norris, the superyacht industry creates job opportunities for young people.

He tells Glacier Media that the marina has a high staff turnover as employees end up working on the bigger yachts.

“We're open to it. We don't think that that's a bad thing if they come on, and that's their career,” he says. “If they're hard-working, the yachts pick them up. There’s not a lot of them being trained in the region purposefully for that."

Norris adds yachting is an exciting way to see the world.

“You come down, you work here for a little bit and you have a really good chance of getting on one of those boats and just seeing stuff you would never see.”

The marina, he says, is actively hiring and looking for people interested in the marine industry. 

Superyacht repairs being done in B.C. shipyards 

Superyachts need an incredible amount of work to keep them running, and much of that work is being done locally when they arrive, says the CEO. 

"There are well over 100 industries that it touches: everything from fuel, to ship repair to almost anything you would have in a house you would have in a yacht,” says Norris. 

He believes more yachts will start coming to Victoria and having their work done in the shipyard.

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Vancouver luxury yacht a floating palace, made out of teak

There are a lot of luxury yachts in Vancouver. But there is only one Taconite, a floating palace that has just gone on the market for $2.5 million US. The 125-foot (38-metre) yacht was built in 1930 at a long-gone Boeing plant in Coal Harbour as a private yacht for William Boeing, the founder of the Seattle aircraft company.

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VANCOUVER -- There are a lot of luxury yachts in Vancouver. But there is only one Taconite, a floating palace that has just gone on the market for $2.5 million US.

The 125-foot (38-metre) yacht was built in 1930 at a long-gone Boeing plant in Coal Harbour as a private yacht for William Boeing, the founder of the Seattle aircraft company.

It cost $421,000 to build, at a time when many boats cost $1,000. Its launch on June 11, 1930 was the social event of the season, with over 100 bluebloods coming from across North America to check it out.

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Many of them were probably invited to be Bill and Bertha Boeing’s guests on leisurely cruises up the Inside Passage to Alaska.

“They’d leave for the summer,” said Doug Gregory, who looks after the yacht during the winter months. “In those days they had their flying boats (seaplanes). They had people fly in and fly out, just like we use modern floatplanes. The boat was a floating hotel that keeps on going.”

It still is.

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The Taconite has five large staterooms (bedrooms), three with ensuites, and a formal dining room with a table for 10. The salon (living room) is bigger than many condos, and comes with a wood-burning fireplace. The wall sconces and fittings in the passenger quarters are sterling silver, and there is more teak than you’ve ever seen in your life.

In fact, the ship is made out of old-growth teak. There is teak paneling, teak wainscoting, built-in teak cupboards, built-in teak bookshelves, teak coffered ceilings and teak flooring, all made from logs Boeing imported from Burma and milled in Vancouver.

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The boat was designed by Tom Halladay, and built at the Boeing Airplane and Hoffar Beeching plants in the 1900 block of West Georgia, just east of Stanley Park.

Hoffar Beeching was one of Vancouver’s top boat builders in the 1920s, producing local luxury yachts like the Fifer and the Deerleap. Boeing purchased the company when he decided to build flying boats in Vancouver in 1929.

The Taconite is now owned by Gordon Levett, who used to own the Pacific Coast Lines bus company. Levett has kept the yacht in mint shape, which is no small deal - every couple of years the exterior teak has to be given a fresh coat of varnish, and the boat put into drydock, so that the giant teak hull can be given a new coat of paint.

Levett sometimes works on the engine himself, and still likes to take the wheel and captain the vessel. But he’s in his mid-70s, and thinks it’s time to sell.

“I’ve seen people keep boats too long, then they get to where they can’t maintain them,” said Levett, who is the third owner of the boat.

“It will hopefully (go to) somebody who will carry on and maintain it, keep it looked after. It’s a piece that should never really be allowed to go to disarray.

“It’d be nice if it stayed in British Columbia, but I can’t be sure it will.”

In fact, the Taconite is listed for sale with Emerald Pacific Yachts in Seattle. But it has always been registered in Vancouver, and is currently in storage at a local marina, a stone’s throw from Jimmy Pattison’s boat.

Levett isn’t just the Taconite’s owner, he’s also the boat’s historian.

“I have drawer-fulls of history of the vessel,” he said by the phone from Palm Springs. “I have all the log books, from Volume 1, and there’s probably a hundred and some odd of them.”

The boat is named after a low grade of iron ore. Boeing is associated with planes, but the family fortune began in logging and mining.

In the 1880s, Bill Boeing’s father Wilhelm bought some timber lands near Hibbing, Minnesota. But he found you couldn’t use a compass over the land, because of all the taconite just below the surface.

A geologist suggested that there might be high-grade iron ore below the taconite.

“And there was, big time,” said Levett. “That’s where the (Boeing) money came from, out of mining.”

Bill Boeing was born in Detroit, but moved to Washington state when he was 22. He built his first aircraft – a biplane seaplane – in 1915.

By 1929, the Boeing website said the company “included several airlines, aircraft manufacturers, engine and propeller manufacturers, and a school for pilots and maintenance personnel in California.”

Boeing celebrated his success by building one of the most luxurious yachts on the west coast.

He would cruise around the Gulf Islands or up the Inside Passage for weeks or months at a time, running his businesses from the “Texan Room,” an office on the top deck of the ship. A radio room next door relayed his instructions back to Seattle.

In Boeing’s era, the Taconite had a crew of 10; today Levett runs it with four or five. You can rent it, fully staffed, for $45,000 a week.

Boeing’s old office is now a stateroom, and the radio room an ensuite washroom, but by and large it’s still very 1930.

The helm of the ship is drop-dead gorgeous, with teak paneled walls and all sorts of vintage equipment, including a brass wheel for electric steering and a wooden one for manual. It still has the original depth sounder, a chart table packed with maps of the coast, and a 1940s radar system.

“Everything in here operates,” said Gregory, who took the Sun on a tour.

“(But there are) a few modern things, such as single lever engine room controls, so you don’t have to have somebody in the engine room. In the old days, an engineer had to be in the engine room (when you were underway), you telegraphed him to make a command.”

The Taconite is powered by two enormous Atlas Imperial engines from the 1930s. Oddly, the engines only put out 220 horsepower.

“In the old days they didn’t worry about horsepower, it was mass and torque,” Gregory explained.

The top speed is 12 knots, which makes for a relaxing trip.

“For me it’s a wonderful pace,” said Gregory, who is captain of another, more modern yacht.

“It’s a very slow pace compared to a modern yacht, where I’m going along at 15 knots and everything is kind of high-paced. This is great, you get into the rhythm of this boat very very quickly.”

Asked how miles to the gallon it gets, Gregory smiled.

“It burns probably about 12 gallons an hour,” he said. “It’s a very economical boat, surprisingly enough. It takes thimbles full of fuel compared to a new yacht that would take 180 gallons an hour.”

It’s also a lot smaller than the new breed of super yacht. Paul Allen’s yacht Olympus, for example, is 414 feet (126 metres) long, has a crew of 80, and reportedly cost $200 million US.

The vintage theme carries over to the galley, where the original 1930 Universal Cooler wall refrigeration system is still in place. Cooking is done on a Garland gas stove, which has been converted to propane.

The porthole windows are larger than normal, because Bill Boeing was a big man and wanted to be able to squeeze through them in a pinch. The Taconite also has old-fashioned “Pullman windows” which slide up and down, like on a train.

There’s a beautiful little outdoor seating area behind the salon where guests can sit and watch the wake produced by the boat as it skims the waters.

“All you see is two strips of foam out the back,” said Gregory.

“It’s a very popular place in the summer; it’s the most beautiful place you can imagine. Mrs. Boeing used to spend her days back here.”

And so can you, if you have $2.5 million US to buy it.

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7 of the largest yachts owned by American sports billionaires, ranked: From Dan Snyder’s Lady S, which has an IMAX theater, to the Dallas Cowboys owner’s $225 million superyacht. The most expensive vessel belongs to an immigrant who once washed dishes for $1.20 an hour.

7. Steve Bisciotti, Baltimore Ravens – Winning Drive, 130 feet-

Yachts are an extension of their owner’s personality, and the 130-footer Westport yacht is no different. As a young boy, the tycoon, who is worth $7.5 billion today according to Forbes, witnessed his father’s demise and the struggles of his middle-class Italian-American household. It was a winning drive that led 23-year-old Bisciotti to Aerotek, a staffing company in the aerospace and technology sectors, with his cousin Jim Davis.

6. Terry Pegula, Buffalo Sabres – Top Five Yacht, 200 feet-

The son of a truck driver from Quebec relied on his science degree in petroleum and natural gas engineering and $7,500 from family and friends in 1983 to start his natural gas drilling company. The 73-year-old made a fortune in oil and gas before transforming it into a sports empire that includes the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres. The father of famous professional tennis player Jessica Pegula saw many highs, but the one we like most is the $75 million Royal Hakvoort vessel named after the owner’s five kids. The tycoon, worth $10.8 billion according to Forbes, has shown the world how to have a fun time with family when you can splurge $500,000 per week.

5. Stanley Kroenke, Los Angeles Rams – Aquila yacht, 281 feet-

This 77-year-old sports mogul has been honing his business acumen since childhood. Raised in Mora, Missouri, he started sweeping floors at his father’s lumber yard and managing the company’s books by age ten. After earning his MBA in 1973, he met Wal-Mart heiress Ann Walton in Aspen and married her a year later. In 1985, he launched his own real estate development company, and by 1994, he ventured into sports team ownership. With a net worth of $16.9 billion, the billionaire now commands an impressive portfolio, including the Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, Colorado Rapids, and the U.K.’s Arsenal soccer club. A major landowner, with over 1.6 million acres of ranches across the U.S. and Canada also owns the majestic Aquilla superyacht with his wife, Walmart heiress Ann Walton.

4. Arthur Blank, Atlanta Falcons – Dreamboat, 295 feet

This 81-year-old New York-born businessman founded Home Depot after being fired from a hardware store. As it turned out, this setback led to a revolutionary success, transforming the home improvement industry and making the Babson Institute graduate a billionaire . Worth $9.1 billion today, the father of nine from three marriages retired as Home Depot’s co-chairman in 2001 and purchased the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons for $545 million in 2002. He also commissioned the massive ‘DreAMBoat,’ highlighting his initials (Arthur Morris Blank), built by Oceanco with interiors designed by Terence Disdale.

3. Daniel Snyder, Washington Commanders – Lady S, 305 feet

Snyder is an enterprising businessman worth $4.5 billion who, as a 20-year-old college dropout, made his first million leasing jets to fly college students to spring break in Fort Lauderdale and the Caribbean. The 59-year-old operated that business out of his parents’ apartment. With a successful business called Snyder Communications, he had enough wealth to buy the NFL’s Washington Commanders for $750 million in 1999. Ten years later, the boy who mopped the floors at the cafeteria inside the National Institutes of Health as a high school student splurged on a whopping $192 million yacht, Lady S.

2. Jerry Jones, Dallas Cowboys – Bravo Eugenia, 358 feet

From co-captaining Arkansas’ 1964 national championship football team to acquiring the Cowboys from H. R. “Bum” Bright for $140 million in 1989 (now valued at a staggering $9 billion), the 81-year-old billionaire worth $14.5 billion has showcased that sports run deep in his veins. His passion extends to art, with a collection that includes masterpieces by Picasso, Renoir, and Matisse. His $225 million Oceanco-built superyacht stands as a testament to luxury, adorned with art, bespoke furniture, and Swarovski details, all reflecting his wife Gene’s exquisite taste.

1. Shahid Khan, Jacksonville Jaguars – Kismet, 400 feet

The poster boy for rags-to-riches tales, billionaire Shahid Khan went from washing dishes for $1.20 an hour to taking delivery of one of 2024’s largest yachts. The $360 million superyacht Kismet , meaning ‘destiny,’ is a lavish Lürssen vessel that comes with exciting features like a Balinese spa, a gym, two movie theaters, and three swimming pools. The Reymond Langton-designed floating palace, dubbed a cathedral of design in his own words, is a huge leap from a teenage migrant boy grinding away in a YMCA kitchen.

Frank Fertitta III, Former UFC owner – Viva, 308 feet-

The fabulous Feadship mammoth, the Viva yacht , which won accolades like Motoryacht of the Year in 2022, deserves a mention despite her owner, Frank Fertitta III, having sold his stake to an investment group led by WME/IMG for $4 billion in 2016.

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